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Planet Ryder - The Peter Ryder Website!

Welcome! Peter Ryder is various things. Professionally he is an independent Historic Buildings Consultant, or Buildings Archaeologist, working primarily in the North East of England. He was born in Darlington and got his first degree (Geography/Geology Dual Hons) at Sheffield University in 1974, working for a while in Hull University (where he met Elaine, his wife) before returning to Sheffield to become Assistant Archaeologist with the South Yorkshire County Archaeology Service (1976-1984) during which time he obtained a Masters Degree in Archaeology, through a study of medieval cross slab grave covers in the county. Peter and Elaine, now with two young children (Aidan and Megan) then moved to Northumberland for him to work for two years on the National Resurvey of Buildings of Architectural and Historic Interest; they took up residence in a brick Edwardian terrace house on the banks of the Tyne sixteen miles west of Newcastle, where they still remain.

Since 1987 Peter has been self-employed, and has got to know an awful lot of interesting old buildings…. He does other things as well; since the mid 1960s he has been a member of the Moldywarps Speleological Group, and knows various obscure corners of the British Isles from underneath as well as from the surface.

He is also a singer/songwriter, appreciated by a select minority, and is, with Elaine, involved in local church life; at the moment he is on a Reader course (as an independent candidate) with the Church of England. The Ryders also like travelling to interesting places, sometimes on Peter’s W650 motorbike, and you will find illustrated travelogues on this website chronicling some of these trips. Aidan and Megan have now flown the nest, but their parents still have a thriving cat family (Verity, Clemency, Mandu and Thomas d’Abricot).